It seems a lie that regulating the duties of children must be a matter of laws and not common sense, but after so much debate of duties yes, duties no and nothing changes, we are glad to know that at least some light seems to be seen at the end of tunnel. The Madrid Assembly approves limiting school duties. As the mother of three girls, I cannot be in favor of the amount and type of duties that Spanish children do today. They show a failure in the education system that must change, for the sake of our children.
At least the parents worried about this situation we feel listened to with what happened yesterday: the Madrid Assembly approved a Proposal No of Law that urges the regional government to set a rule that regulates school duties in Primary and establish a maximum percentage of weekly time to perform these tasks based on the characteristics of the students.
The promoter of the initiative, taken to the Madrid Assembly by Citizens, was a mother, Eva Bailén, who, seeing her children's relationship with her homework, launched a campaign to streamline duties that has collected more than 200,000 firms.
Should school duties be regulated? Yes, for the sake of children
Spain's situation regarding duties is worrisome. According to the WHO, Spanish children are among the most pressured by the duties, occupying the first positions in the ranking of countries with the highest percentage of children affected by excessive duties.
We are above the average of the OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) in the amount of duties that students must do after the school day. Children spend an average of 6.5 hours per week dedicated to homework compared to 4.9 percent on average.
Among some of the good reasons why children should not have homework is that they generate stress and frustration, that children stop spending valuable time with family or doing other activities such as sports, which both benefit development in childhood . "Homework is an attack on the freedom of how they use their children's leisure time."
The deputy of C's Teresa de la Iglesia defended this initiative, in which the Madrid Executive is invited to "promote with the necessary legal instruments that the duties, during the whole stage of Primary Education, are complementary tasks of those developed during school hours, of reading, reflection, research and motivation, limiting repetitive tasks and similar to those that students already solve in classrooms, except for specific situations in which attention to diversity requires it ".
Hopefully this proposal comes to fruition and schools act soon to change this overwhelming situation for children. That the duties are not his life, regulating them is also a form of family reconciliation.
